1921 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 133 this position to the notion of separatism, according to which a Christian was bound to communicate only with a selected ' church ' ; though Robinson, more tolerant than some, held it lawful to listen to orthodox preachers who remained within the national church. His first controversy was with such, and since this volume was published Mr. Champlin Burrage has printed from a Bodleian manuscript an answer by an anony- mous ' puritan friend' to a lost argument of Robinson's in justification of his withdrawal from St. Andrew's. Such believers in a national church held that, even though silenced by their bishop and bound in conscience not to conform to its ritual, the clergy ought to maintain their member- ship and abstain from any action that would tend to the breach of unity. Mr. Burgess unfortunately has misstated this point of view, and there is rhetoric in his book, aimed at what he calls an ' Anglican priesthood which is equally relevant against the kirk of Scotland and the great majority in the Westminster Assembly. Nor does he fairly state the case against the Canons of 1606. They did not exist by mere royal authority. They were the work of convocation, and the king's signature gave them the same force which it gave to an act of parliament. Convoca- tion and parliament, each in its own sphere, were co-ordinate authorities, neither of which could interfere with the other, and both of which could legislate, their decisions being validated by the king. Such, at least, was a theory widely held among serious people ; and many of those who resented the shape which church legislation took would have been quite content with the authority behind it had its substance satisfied their own desires. Happily, when he reaches the migration to America, Mr. Burgess distinguishes clearly between the ' Puritans ' who impeded the exiles and the Separatists themselves. For the book does not confine itself to John Robinson and his views. It gives an admirable account of the congregation from Scrooby and its neighbourhood which seceded to Amsterdam in 1607, rather in the search for purity through isolation than from fear of persecution. It tells the history of the principal members before their arrival in Holland, and then narrates their departure, after a few months, to Leyden. They had been preceded to Amsterdam by no fewer than three English congregations of different shades, and harmony was imperfect. The fortunes of the colony at Leyden, where all were of one mind with their pastor Robinson, are fully told. We learn what industries they followed, what marriages they contracted, what houses they rented and built. They were drawn inevitably into the controversies which raged among the Amsterdam separatists and among those who had remained in England. These, with the wise efforts of Robinson to appease them, are all fully described ; and we are told a great deal about John Smith, fellow of Christ's and ' Se-Baptist ', the most interesting figure in the group, who departed further than Robinson from what the author calls ' the beaten path of conformity '. We learn all about the separatist press set up at Leyden, which excited the anger of- King James, and the considerable position attained by Robinson among the divines of the university. And finally there is a very full account of the proceedings before the emigration to America, the hiring
